Separatists

vs.
Puritans
Puritanism
Calvinism Institutes of the Christian Religion
Predestination.
Good works could not save those predestined
for hell.
No one could be certain of their spiritual
status.
Gnawing doubts led to constantly seeking
signs of conversion.
Puritans:
Want to totally reform [purify] the Church
of England.
Grew impatient with the slow process of
Protestant Reformation back in England.
Puritans Chase Away Father
Christmas [1652]
Separatist Beliefs:
Puritans who believed only visible
saints [those who could demonstrate in
front of their fellow Puritans their
elect status] should be admitted to
church membership.
Because the Church of England enrolled
all the kings subjects, Separatists felt
they had to share churches with the
damned.
Therefore, they believed in a total
break from the Church of England.
Separatists
Sources of Puritan Migration
1620 a group of 102
people [half Separatists]
Negotiated with the
Virginia Company to
settle in its
jurisdiction.
Non-Separatists
included Captain Myles
Standish.
Plymouth Bay way
outside the domain of the Virginia Company.
Became squatters without legal right to land &
specific authority to establish a govt.
The Mayflower
The Mayflower Compact
November 11, 1620
The Mayflower Compact
November 11, 1620
Written and signed before the
Pilgrims disembarked from the ship.
Not a constitution, but an agreement
to form a crude govt. and submit to
majority rule.
Signed by 41 adult males.
Led to adult male settlers meeting in
assemblies to make laws in town
meetings.
Covenant Theology
Covenant of Grace:
between Puritan communities and
God.

Social Covenant:
Between members of Puritan
communities with each other.
Required mutual watchfulness.
No toleration of deviance or
disorder.
No privacy.
New England Primer
[1689]
Plymouth Plantation
That First Year.
Winter of 1620-1621
Only 44 out of the original 102 survived.
None chose to leave in 1621 when the
Mayflower sailed back.
Fall of 1621 First Thanksgiving.
Colony survived with fur [especially
beaver], fish, and lumber.
Plymouth stayed small and economically
unimportant.
1691 only 7,000 people
Merged with Massachusetts Bay Colony.
William Bradford
Self-taught scholar.
Chosen governor of
Plymouth 30 times in
yearly elections.
Worried about
settlements of
non-Puritans
springing up nearby
and corrupting
Puritan society.
Colonizing New England
First Seal of MA Bay
The MA Bay Colony
1629 non-Separatists got a royal charter
to form the MA Bay Co.
Wanted to escape attacks by conservatives in
the Church of England.
They didnt want to leave the Church, just
its impurities.
1630 1,000 people set off in 11 well-
stocked ships
Established a colony with Boston as its hub.
Great Migration of the 1630s
Turmoil in England [leading to the English Civil
War] sent about 70,000 Puritans to America.
Not all Puritans 20,000 came to MA.
John Winthrop
..we shall be as a
City on a hill.The eyes of
all people are upon us.
Well-off attorney
and manor lord in
England.
A Modell of
Christian Charity.
Became 1
st
governor
of Massachusetts.
Believed that he
had a calling from
God to lead there.
Served as governor
or deputy-governor
for 19 years.
Land Division in
Sudbury, MA: 1639-1656
Characteristics of New England
Settlements
Low mortality average life
expectancy was 70 years of age.
Many extended families.
Average 6 children per family.
Average age at marriage:
Women 22 years old
Men 27 years old.